My mission to the Dominican Republic was amazing. I loved the country, the people, the culture, everything, especially the food. The other day I was really missing the Dominican dish know as, la bandera,(the flag). It is the flag meal of the country, they eat this dish almost everyday in some variation. La bandera consists of white rice with beans, with the bean liquid so that it is kind of soupy, dripped over the rice, fried plantains and some kind of meat, usually chicken. Since I had maid make me lunch everyday for two years I didn’t really know how to go about making it so I asked the wife of one of my companions who also served in the DR but in a different mission for directions. This is the recipe she gave me :

1 can black habichuelas(beans): same as above but only 1/2 a lime with part of the peel grated into it and ad 1/5 can of water.

Then I made platanos fritos (fried plantains). You use a plantain that is green, not ripe yet, and cut it into like half inch chuncks and fry them until they are soft, then smash them flat and fry them again till they are a little crispy. So DELICIOUS!

For Utah this has been a super lame winter. For a skier like myself this has been a super dry and powder lacking winter. It is sad when resorts like Alta and Snowbird that get over 500 inches of snow fall a year have only gotton half that and it doesn’t look like there are any big storms coming our way anytime soon. So where is all the snow? Well it is everywhere but here right now.

The east coast is getting pounded right now. Snow is falling fast and adding up foot by foot all over the east. 2400 flights have been cancelled. Roads are closed, businesses are closing because not one is going out. Heather works with people in Virginia and they are saying that mail isn’t getting delivered there and that their kids have been at home all week.

Southern Utah has been getting tons of snow too. My cousin Sam works at a ski shop near BrianHead resort and he said that they got over 4 feet of snow in two days. I heard the this place in England that doesn’t usually get much snow got over two feet.

Whey can’t it just snow here, where we actually know how to handle it and actually want it.